Our future is not predetermined. Even as conflicts rage, the climate crisis accelerates and inequality deepens, we still have choices to make.
We can choose transformative pathways that are financially rewarding, creating jobs and benefiting both people and planet. By tapping into the energy and creativity of the 1.45 billion young people ready to lead, we can forge an inspiring agenda of hope for the future.
Although there is still time, the deadline is approaching. To get the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track, we need fresh approaches and new ways of working.
In an increasingly fragmented and polarized world, global cooperation is being tested like never before. Development assistance is declining, trade tensions are escalating, and a deepening debt crisis threatens stability – with 61 low-income economies at moderate to high risk of debt distress – 35 of these are at high risk. This instability hits the world's poorest countries hardest, making international collaboration more urgent than ever.
As we enter the crucial five-year countdown to the SDGs deadline, the annual Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) is an essential bridge. It unites leaders from politics, business, science and civil society, to chart the future of sustainability in our multipolar world.
The conference offers a chance for reflection and reevaluation. Over the past decade, successful collaborations between the public and private sectors, along with alliances among multilateral and national policymakers, have proven that we can create jobs, improve livelihoods and boost incomes worldwide.
Now, facing rising inequalities and divisions, we must build on these wins, while forging new collaborative pathways. In an era of uncertainty, sustainable development becomes the thread that pulls countries together, rather than apart.
“In our interconnected world, we must reject the notion of a zero-sum game. This is the time to boldly redefine what a win-win relationship looks like."
Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator
UNDP proudly joins forces with the HSC co-initiators – the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the Michael Otto Foundation.
In this multipolar world, traditional development models must give way to more collaborative approaches. As a long-standing partner of UNDP, Germany demonstrates how strategic investments can transform lives, while its commitment to multilateralism and institutional reform brings crucial perspectives to discussions on redefining sustainable development for the 21st century.
Over 60 countries are transforming their economies, with German support, through UNDP decarbonization initiatives, while 17 particularly ambitious countries receive targeted assistance for their climate goals. Belize and Uganda have established government climate departments, and with UNDP’s support, Pakistan has introduced policies that promote climate-friendly construction.
This support creates powerful ripple effects beyond environmental benefits. UNDP-OECD projections show that increased climate ambition could boost global GDP by 0.23 percent, potentially lifting one fifth of the world’s population out of extreme poverty while reducing air pollution deaths. This demonstrates how climate action and human development are mutually reinforcing pathways to a more secure future.
From governance to finance, the HSC is imagining what sustainable futures can look like, embracing all the tools at our disposal.
This includes examining new approaches to financing the SDGs, as well as ways to transform economies and food systems, expanding green energy and creating policies that promote AI and digitalization as a tool for equality. Artificial intelligence stands as one of the most transformative forces of our time, yet its potential for advancing the SDGs remains largely untapped.
Led by UNDP and BMZ, the Hamburg Declaration on Responsible AI for the SDGs is a groundbreaking initiative which is being prepared for HSC 2025. It will outline principles and commitments to harness AI for development, promoting responsible technological progress and ensuring an equitable future.
"We can't build a future for our grandchildren with a system built by our grandparents."
António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
The world is grappling with interconnected crises, including climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty, rising inequalities, and political and economic shocks – issues our current systems are not equipped to handle. The HSC will chart a path forward, recognizing that it is our collective responsibility to create a financial system that values both financial and developmental returns. Economic growth must respect planetary boundaries to protect our planet for future generations.
Building on the Pact for the Future, which carries with it the Global Digital Compact and Declaration on Future Generations, the aim is to reaffirm the global community's commitment to inclusive, accountable and transformative systems that safeguard the needs of those yet to come – most of whom will be born in Africa and Asia.
Development cooperation has delivered extraordinary results over the past 60 years. Diseases have been eradicated, poverty rates are at historic lows, life expectancy has reached record highs, millions more girls are in school, and nearly 70 percent of the world is now online.
These achievements are the fruits of sustained investment in national and global development. The HSC offers an opportunity to move forward and work together to create new sustainable action that 'de-risks' our collective future.
© 2026 United Nations Development Programme
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